Fund Groups

Energy and Environment Awards

Proposal timeline for the 2018-2019 academic year:

Proposals are due on or before March 29, 2019

Awards announced by April 22, 2019

Fund Information:

Rice Universityâ€™s Energy and Environment Initiative supports the research, development and implementation of technologies and policies that can sustainably provide energy to all regions of our globe.
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Awards are funded up to a maximum of $50,000 and may extend for up to two years. Multi-disciplinary projects might be funded to a total of $100,000.Â
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Because collaboration with multi-disciplined researchers and corporate partners is essential to our goals, EEA proposals that engage such collaborations are strongly encouraged. No EEA award may be used for summer salary, purchase of research equipment, or reducing teaching responsibilities. The purpose of this grant is to advance the technical and business case necessary to create research collaborations within Rice and with outside partners, and to seed projects that are likely to obtain continual support from external funding sources.

Eligibility:

Full-time and research faculty members at Rice are eligible to apply. Proposals may be submitted individually or by a group of faculty. Preference will be given to multi-faculty and multi-disciplinary proposals. No researcher may be listed as 'PI' on more than two proposals submitted in any given funding round. Please inform your department chair that you have applied for this grant.

Review process:

The review of proposals will be carried out by a committee assembled by the Office of the Provost. This committee will be comprised of faculty from across the university who are not applicants to this fund.

Selection criteria:

Proposals will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

The importance of the scientific or technical problem, and the quality of the research project.

The novelty of the ideas â€“ preference might be given to proposals that initiate a new line of research, especially those from newer faculty.

The potential impact of the work in raising the research profile of Rice, and in furthering the goals of Rice and of EEi.

Â The contribution the project makes towards establishing and/or strengthening multi-disciplined partnerships in energy and environmental research and engaging external partners in government and industry.

The opportunities for long term funding to continue the research project beyond the seed fund period of performance will also be considered.

Conditions:

Project management â€“ The PI is directly responsible for performance of the work in the proposal and should not serve as proxy for others.

Co-funding â€“ Any anticipated external source of support for the proposed project should be mentioned at the time of submission.Â If co-funding becomes an issue during the EEA proposal/project process, this should be discussed with EEi leadership.

No researcher may be listed as PI on more than two proposals submitted in any given funding round.

Progress report â€“ PIs will meet with EEi quarterly to review the progress on the execution of the projects. This is intended to identify possible barriers and help the PIs resolve any issues.

Deliverables â€“ PIs are expected to submit an interim report at the end of the first year and a final report at the end of seed fund support (for multi-year projects). The reports will be helpful in promoting the project and in assisting PIs with finding support to continue the research and grow the project when seed funding is finished.

How to apply:

Proposals must be submitted using this webform by March 29, 2019.Â Proposals must include the following documents in PDF format:

A project description including an explanation of the work written such that an expert from industry or academia will be able to understand the significance, scope, and objectives of the grant proposal period (no more than two pages (in 12-point type), including figures);

A single-page budget statement indicating how the requested funds will be expended;